Tag Archives: Lee Dixon

I am sorry Kenny, Twitter isn’t going to help

1 Reply

Something has bugged me for a few weeks now. Something which I wanted to blog about, but wondered if it was too insensitive or would be too far against what many people want to read, that something is with regards to Arsenal legend Kenny Sansom.

The frustration’s began a while ago, when a Twitter account surfaced rumoured to be from his nephew. It became clear it was indeed, his nephew, but it also became very clear that his nephew was clearly attention seeking. I do not know how old his nephew is, but it was obvious that he was trying to build a Twitter following through being Sansom’s nephew. It came across as very sad and attention seeking.

Then the news about Kenny Sansom being an alcoholic broke. I had a massive issue with this at the time, the reason being this ‘World Exclusive’ of Sansom’s cry for help, appeared in the very first Sunday edition of a well known tabloid. I took this original story with a pinch of salt, wondering how much Sansom was paid by said tabloid to ensure it had a massive World Exclusive on its first edition.

My frustrations with the Sansom situation increased, as no sooner had he come out (for the 3rd time in the press, no less) as an alcoholic, another Twitter account appeared, with it’s Bio being:

“An account created to show support for suffering alcoholics & homeless. Inspired by my uncle Kenny Sansom to help others like him that aren’t in the public eye.”

How sick in the head must you be to set up a Twitter page about a family member who is an alcoholic? Anyone who has dealt with an alcoholic family member (my family has a history) knows your 1st thoughts are with helping them. Clearly in this case, family members see it as a way to increase publicity. Maybe it is this exploitation of Sansom which drove him to drink to begin with?

The final straw for me came when Kenny Sansom begun his own Twitter account. It became clear immediately that it was unlikely that it was him tweeting. The tweets were in the same childish manner as the previous accounts, set up by his nephew. Was this a coincidence? Was this his nephew giving advice? Or was it his nephew once more using his Uncle’s great name to grow his own ‘popularity’, increasing his own attention, living his life through Kenny?

On his account, Kenny begged the attention of other ex-players. Continually tweeting them, begging for RT’s. I begun wondering once more, whether this was Kenny himself, or his nephew hoping to open up dialogue with the likes of Ian Wright, Lee Dixon, et al.

Most recently, a tweet from his account made me disgusted that it became the straw that broke the camel’s back:

“It’s Ben. Kenny’s really down & struggling big time having fallen off the wagon a few times. Trying to find some ideas to pick him back up?”

This is exploitation. Kenny’s name, his illness, is being used by those around him. His family should be helping him fight the battle, not making his dirty laundry public at every opportunity.

Yes, alcoholism affects a lot of people, and those who suffer from it need to seek help, but they also need to help themselves. What they do not need is to be exploited by those closest, their family, for the sole reason of gaining followers.

Kenny, turn Twitter off and tell your nephew to stop being an attention seeking prick. The Arsenal are with you every step of the way. Other’s are simply exploiting you.

Sporting Chance Clinic
Alcoholics Anonymous

Keenos
 

The Arsenal and Me – Hashim’s Story

2 Replies

I almost became a Chav. I actually thought that Zola was the best player ever to play the beautiful game. I knew about Chelsea players more than the likes of Wright, Lee Dixon, Kevin Campbell, Merson, Bould, Alan Smith, George Graham etc. for the sole reason I grew up surrounded by Chelsea fans and watched some of their matches and only the odd Arsenal game.

It was difficult to watch any Arsenal matches back then. We didn’t have that coverage to such matches easily. You know the technological problems of a 3rd world country like Kenya in the 90s and I was just 5 yrs old then! I had never heard of a mobile phone back then let alone the internet or cable television, imagine! Most of the information about the EPL came from reading the daily newspapers which will be a day or two late!

I only read about The Arsenal signing the likes of Bergkamp, AW, Petit etc. in the papers. I also read about the 1998 double in the papers though I had watched just two matches that campaign one against Southampton I remember! At least I was ten back then and running away from extra tuition and Madrassa classes to just go watch football would earn one a thorough beating.

Good thing though that was a world cup year and everyone watched the world cup. I came to know more about Bergkamp, Petit and Vieira from just watching the world cup matches. We later signed Henry and Davor Suker; Croatia and France top scorers in that tournament. Sadly, I didn’t get to watch them play for The Arsenal as I had now moved to the upper classes and needed to concentrate a lot more on my studies. Thanks goodness I only read about the 6-1 loss to Utd in the papers!

In Feb 2002, I joined a national school in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya for my secondary school education. It was there that I met Ian Kipchirchir, a devoted Gooner and my transformation to a fully pledged Arsenal fan was complete. He sneaked a small portable radio to school and we would listen to the 5 o’clock BBC live commentary every Saturday and the midnight sports news in midweek just to know how The Arsenal had fared. It was risky as it would lead to 2 weeks suspension if we were caught but who cared!

I could now watch more games when I was on holiday or not in school. It was now easy to catch the matches at the local joint as many people now had cable television coverage. I became completely engrossed in football and The Arsenal. I didn’t want to miss a single match. I would stay late into the night or walk long distances just to find a place to watch The Arsenal play. What a team we had then.

The years 1996-2005 were great years. The squad was complete. It was composed of players with great technical ability and just sheer physical strength. It was a great blend of players who complemented one another very well. It didn’t matter whether we lost key players because they were adequately replaced. The desire and passion to win was just vivid and add to it the panache in the overall team play. Winning was the only thing.

The years that followed that very successful period were very difficult as the club underwent many changes. The summer of 2005 saw an overhaul of the squad. The old guard was replaced by unproven precocious players and saw the shift from big, tall players to small, technical players. This came just after the greatest achievement for the club and English football; going the whole season unbeaten and just before moving to the new stadium. I really thought we would dominate English football for years to come after such an achievement. I was wrong…

The approach the club took their after was not the best at least in my opinion. Trophies were replaced by the ‘top four trophy’, returning injured players became LANS which was the biggest flaw in AW’s management in that same period, average players became overpaid, signing quality players became a taboo, the young players would be killed if better and proven players were signed, the cups lost their importance, more players became susceptible to injuries and would be sidelined for longer periods leaving the squad even thinner, change of formation and we started selling our star players without adequate replacements or completely fail to replace them.

In a nutshell the winning mentality was gone. Excuses for poor performances became the order of the day. Most players were average and/or not suitable to play the Wengerball. Players started being played out of position. Same tactics were used regardless of opposition and most players were almost similar to one another with absolutely no squad depth. For eight consecutive seasons our capitulation was just as similar as the season past yet nothing was done about it. Mistakes were never learnt and have never been even this 2013/14 season.

We always dither in the transfer market. Indecision and penny-pinching takes the better of our manager in the transfer window and still refuses to address the glaring problems of the team. 9 seasons since we last won a trophy the squad still has one 2/3 players short more notably a super striker and a proper winger. OG is a good player but we will never win the league with him as our main striker even if he were to stay fit the whole season. By our own standards he is not the best out there. Can we do better? Absolutely…

This season we can win the league but let us not deceive ourselves that this already thin squad can sustain a title challenge. Let 2007/08 be a great lesson. We must sign another striker and he should be better than what we have. Hope we win something this season. The whole team and the fans deserve it.

That said it is easy to brush aside the overseas fan base just because we’ve never stood on the terraces of the North Bank at Highbury nor been to the Grove but we share the same passion. We win we bask in the same glory; we lose we share the same pain and angst. I am Arsenal and always will be…

Hashim

If you would like to tell your Arsenal story, click here

The Arsenal and Me – Micheal’s Story

1 Reply

It’s All Lee Dixon’s Fault.

Love affairs and addictions often happen by chance. Someone or something comes into your life, possibly briefly but its impact is sudden and overwhelming. My addictive love affair with Arsenal is no different. And for that I blame . . . Lee Michael Dixon.

 I discovered Arsenal purely by chance and given the events of my first ever Arsenal match it seems almost surreal. I had been stationed in the US Navy. With my role in the Navy, I split time between London working for Commander-in-Chief US Forces Europe and Allied Forces South based out of Naples Italy. It was the late Eighties, and during that time frame I’d find my exposure to the game I played as a kid taken to new extremes.

During one of my last stays in London, I happened to be friendly with a lot of the lads from the Royal Navy (and some of the lasses as well – that’s another story). One  in particular, Rory, and I had a penchant for hanging out together and enjoying our favorite past time – drinking. One week he found out his brother was sick and wouldn’t be able to go to a football match with him. One they’d planned on going to earlier but for whatever reason they were unable to (at the time I didn’t fully understand what had happened at Hillsborough)

The match he would take me to was none other than the match at Anfield in 1989 – that magical night when “the boys of” Arsenal would put the “men” of Liverpool to the sword and capture their first league title since ‘70-’71. I would later find out that the original timing of this match was postponed from its original date in April because of the Hillsborough tragedy but much like my experience that night I was not aware of that or Arsenal.

Let me tell you, that when it was all said and done and we were journeying home, I had no idea what I had witnessed. All I knew was that it was intense, it was passionate and in my mind , it was the greatest thing I had ever witnessed.

Exposure to the European game was nonexistent growing up. You just didn’t know it. You knew of players like Pele because of the NASL here in the US, but knowing who players were in England for me never really happened,  till that night. And it was that night that I’d really be drawn to the highly effective play of one player in particular. . .

Lee Dixon. I think I was first drawn to Lee because he was the man who put that final goal in motion, and for some reason when I watched it happen, I just felt I was seeing something magical – that could’ve been Rory’s hand grasping my forearm for dear life though. That pass to Smith that eventually found its way to Michael Thomas would be the catalyst for my fascination with Arsenal.

I would leave London that following week and I wouldn’t go back again until after my discharge, but I was hooked. I had to know more and whilst finishing up my service in Napoli (watching Maradona play for them – how’s that for exposure to soccer) I began reading the weekly versions of the UK papers to keep up on Arsenal and of course Lee Dixon.

If only we had the Internet back then!

Once back home in the US information on Arsenal was harder still.  AOL was in it’s infancy and digital sharing of information was sporadic – at best. So my initial keep-up on Arsenal was through the mail from Rory and similarly to my time in Naples, through the weekly UK press (the Express could be had at certain book shops) available here in the US.  But I was a determined young man and I wanted to see them live as often as I could. And with no strings and money from an inheritance, I went as frequently as life would allow.

As I got to know Arsenal during that time, what struck me about Lee Dixon’s play was the almost unassuming way he went about his business. And for me, that is why I liked him. Where I grew up in the US, we like our sports personalities to be blue collar, hard-working, and not flashy – to me Lee Dixon was the epitome of that.  To say Lee didn’t have flash is kind of misleading – let’s say it was subdued flash. He didn’t have the silky skills we swoon over, but he had a dogged determination to win every ball he good. And because as good as he was defensively, the fact he scored 28 goals – some of a wicked variety are often overlookedObviously there is THAT goal against Chelsea. Coming in from the left side and just rifling a shot in the upper corner that any striker would’ve been envious of. Or the goal against George Graham’s Leeds. Both of those stand out as a testament his offensive skills.

Still, though, he was a defender. It’s always easy to take joy in a goal or the flash of a midfielder or striker, but to truly appreciate a player, you must watch those who ply their trade defending. Sometimes there work is non-stop, sometimes it’s non-existent.

Of course back then, defending was a way of life for Arsenal, particularly when Lee was part of that famed back four. The times I did get to see him live or  in a pub here in the US (the Dicken’s Inn in Philadelphia used to be the early spot) I just always felt watching him – he was so easily good at this. He was a fullback who was solid and determined, and while Tony Adams would wear the moniker of Mr. Arsenal (and rightly so), I always thought of Lee as Mr. Dependable.

Of course any discussion of Lee would be incomplete without acknowledging the own goal against Coventry – the best own goal ever according to some. It was something I didn’t see live but was relayed to me the phone almost immediately after the match. Looking at it now through the help of YouTube, it’s not a highlight reel moment unless you are capturing the worst possible moments of a player’s career. But as I watch it and I watch my favorite player wince and grab his head in pain, I feel it too – even now.

My last memory of Lee playing is probably the time I think I knew, as probably did others, that his playing career was in the wane. It was during the 2000-2001 FA Cup Final in Cardiff. I have to admit to crying afterwards (I’m actually cold and heartless really) and coming to terms with Lee’s mortality. Watching Michael Owen, speed by him for the eventual winner was too painful. But it was painful I think, because we don’t ever want to see our heroes stop being who we know they truly are.

I have this propensity for freezing people in time. I still envision my 35 year old younger brother as 9 year old. For me Lee will always be that man who lofted the ball so sweetly to Alan Smith, and with the start of play for that legendary goal, sent me on a journey I haven’t ever come back from.

We are blessed now that Lee has taken his talents to punditry. He is as good there as he was on the pitch. His ability to dissect a game is a testament, to me at least, to his ability to read a game as player. He is insightful, thoughtful and objective.

As I started YouAreMyArsenal and we started to get some recognition, I was asked if I wanted to participate on a Q&A video with the IAMPLAYR application on Facebook. I was curious. Then they told me who was going to be answering our questions, Lee Dixon. Curiosity be damned. It was Lee.

It’s all a little fanboy I know. But I show Lee to my sons and even some of my players (I am a coach now) videos of THAT back four and I tell them – that’s how you defend. And then I show them Lee scoring – and I say good defenders get to score too.

If I was offered the chance to meet Lee Dixon, I would simply say to him – Lee, thank you. You have given me a love affair with a club no one can take away and I am forever grateful.

Michael

Michael is the administrator/blogger for youaremyarsenal.com. You can join his Facebook group here

If you would like to tell your Arsenal story, click here